@quietcanines: Media Portrays Indigenous and Muslim Youth as ‘Savages’ and ‘Barbarians’ If Dr. Abdul El-Sayed loses tomorrow, blame the media. With the US midterm elections tomorrow, I am most interested to see if the Muslim candidate, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, can overcome the most racist and Islamophobic campaign I have ever seen. Because my channel focuses on Indigenous issues, I want to highlight the similarities in how the media portrays Indigenous and Muslim youth. This is based on the work of Yasmin Jiwani, who traced media patterns over four years. She discovered that Indigenous youth were portrayed as savages, while young Muslims were portrayed as barbarians. The “savage” is based on the myth of the “noble savage,” an idea created in the 18th century to support Western nations. The savage can be tamed and converted into civilization. In contrast, the “barbarian” is portrayed as someone motivated by an irrational desire to destroy other civilizations. In almost 90 per cent of stories concerning Indigenous youth, the focus was on failure. More than half of the stories about Muslim youth focused on radicalization and terrorism. After examining almost 400 stories in The Globe and Mail, Jiwani identified recurring themes. Indigenous stories focused on failed systems, missing women and gang violence. Muslim stories focused on radicalization, surveillance, immigration, honour killings and gang violence. She concludes that we need to dismantle the idea of “us” and “them” if we are to build a more just society. If Abdul El-Sayed loses tomorrow, I will put much of the blame on the media. Join our growing Substack community to learn more about Indigenous history. We are still accepting new members to our Tribe. The link is in my bio. #michigan #AbdulEl-Sayed #HaleyStevens #usmidterms #indigenoushistory

Michael

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Tuesday 03 November 2026 05:33:49 GMT